Dubai public transport ridership rises this year
In the first half of this year, 278m travelled, up by 2m compared to the same period last year
Public transport means in Dubai served nearly 278 million riders in the first half of this year, up by two million over the same period last year, an official said yesterday.
Mattar Al Tayer, directorgeneral and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said commuters who took RTA’s public transport such as Dubai Metro, tram, buses and marine transit means (abra, ferry, water taxi, water bus) as well as taxis (Dubai Taxi and franchise companies) totalled 277.91 million from January to June this year.
The figure shows steady growth compared with the ridership of 275.242 million reported during the same period last year.
This means an average of 1.535 million commuters take public transport daily.
Dubai Metro continues to hold the top spot among public transport means, accounting for 37.17 per cent of ridership. As many as 103.292 million riders took the Red and Green Lines of the Metro during the same period.
Taxis came a close second with 31.61 per cent, followed by public buses at 27.48 per cent. Marine transport came third, having ferried more than seven million passengers, while the Dubai Tram carried more than three million passengers.
Of the two metro lines, the Red Line transported 66.862 million passengers, nearly double the number of riders of the Green Line at 36.43 million.
The metro interchange station of BurJuman handled the largest number of riders — 6.369 million, while the Union metro station handled 5.488 million riders.
The JLT station jumped to second place, serving 5.524 million riders.